Wednesday, October 31, 2007

The final Lake Sonoma Series (#6) is upon us, and the points race is coming to a close. 16 prizes will be handed out to the top points leaders of the year. Some have a strong hold on the placings. But not everyone. It's down to the wire this Saturday at Lake Sonoma at the formerly-known-as Billy Cross races! (via BikeMonkey)

Monday, October 29, 2007

The Coolest 24, which has quickly grown into one of the best endurance races in NorCal, has announced their 2008 dates:

"May 3rd and 4th, 2008

The Coolest 24 in its second year became one of the top prize money and award giving ultra events in the Nation. $6,000 in prize money and over $20,000 in awards." (Via Global BioRythm Events - Cool24)

Saturday, October 27, 2007

"Attention: The CCCX DH Race scheduled for October 28 will be re-scheduled! Race #3 will now be held on November 4th. There was a conflict with dates at Toro Park, and now the series final will be scheduled at a later date to be determined. Racers......Please make a note that the race scheduled for October 28 will not take place, and the next CCCX DH race will be November 4th at Toro Park." (Via 2007 Central Coast Downhill)

"Sugar Mountain Resort is committed to growing its mountain bike program for many years to come. As a result, we have made some short term changes. Sugar Mountain Resort will not host the Showdown at Sugar National Mountain Bike Series event in 2008. The decision was not easy and one we labored over for quite a while. However, we will take a fresh look at hosting an event in 2009. In the mean time, please continue to ride the trails on Sugar Mountain." (Via Sugar Mountain Resort)

I am sure that this won't be the only change that we see in the NMBS schedule.

I haven't seen anything official but rumors swirling around the Internets are that the Bay Area's only remaining MTB festival, The Infineon Cougar Mountain Classic, will not be returning for 2008. Bolstering these rumors are the demise of their website at cmclassic.com and it's absence from the 2008 Infineon schedule.

This is sad, but not entirely unexpected, news. Cougar Mountain has struggled the past few years with course issues (and much criticism) and dwindling attendance. That said, I have always thought that the organizers did a great job with what they had (in terms of course) to bring MTB racing to the Bay Area. I will be sorry to see it go.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

The guys over at bikeMonkey have the preliminary dates for Boggs III, the north bay 8 hour race:

"Saturday, April 5th (2008). I promised you in March that anyone there on that day would be invited to pre-register for the race. I also promised to cap the event at 200 participants. I am a man of my word. Hey, the big farm truck with the band on top has to fit somewhere!

So within the next month registration for Boggs III 8-hour XC Endurance Race will open up ONLY to those who participated in last year's event. You will have about 6 weeks to pre-register before the field spots open up to everyone else. I'll post registration date specifics soon." (Via BikeMonkey.net)

Friday, October 19, 2007

Yikes! Never saw any advance notice of this, but I believe this is the Bidwell Bump:

"The Chico State Cycling Team will hold NORBA and collegiate mountain bike races Saturday and Sunday at Bidwell Park and at the Oroville Dam.

An XC race will be held in Upper Bidwell Park on Saturday at 9 a.m. Registration is from 7 to 8:45 a.m. at Five-Mile Recreation Area.

A Super D race will be held in Upper Bidwell Park on Saturday at 2 p.m. Registration is from 7 to 8:45 a.m. and from noon to 1:30 p.m. at Five-Mile Recreation Area.

A DH race will be held at the Oroville Dam Trail on Sunday at 9 a.m. Registration is from 7 to 8:45 a.m. at the Oroville Dam Trail Head.

An SXTC race will be held in Upper Bidwell Park on Sunday at noon. Registration is from 9 to 11:30 a.m. at Five-Mile Recreation Area.

The fees are $15 for collegiate and $35 for NORBA for the first race each race, $5 for collegiate for each additional race and $10 for NORBA for each additional race. NORBA licenses are required and will be available for purchase at registration. One-day licenses are $10." (Via Chico Enterprise Record)

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Up north in Weaverville tomorrow, the Lagrange Classic begins three days of racing that symbolically closes the NorCal MTB season. Oh, and it's also the NorCal Series Finals. And the California State Championship. Here is the event schedule:

Super D (Friday Afternoon): It uses some of the upper 2/3 of the Downhill course, then veers onto a 3-mile section of the famed flume trails of our cross-country course for a total of 6+ miles. Take a look at the course map here.

Cross Country (Saturday Morning): Sport/Expert/Pro Course has added one more new section of singletrack for a total of 22.5 miles. There is also a new beginners course: "In past years it ended with 3 miles of fireroad, but no more! Our NEW 13.8 mile beginner course is now almost all singletrack!"

Short-track Cross Country (Sunday Morning): It’s a fun ¾-mile loop right behind the high school for easy spectating. There’s some fun single-track, some wide fire-road for passing and an oh-so-steep drop-in to keep things interesting.

Downhill (Sunday Noon): The start is way up WeaverBolly road at 5600' and the finish is next to East Weaver Campground at 2800'. It's along one, it takes a pro about 7.5 minutes to do the 3.2 miles. There are some super-steep chutes up top, some cool jumps and drops, high-speed sweepers, a creek jump and some twisty singletrack near the end. Check out the course map here.

The races will be held rain or shine, but it looks like the rain is going to hold off this weekend. If you have never gotten up Weaverville for one of the Team Bigfoot races, you really owe it to yourself.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Results have been posted for the first Sand Hill Fall gravity series race. The mountain cross race was held October 6th. Congrats to Kevin Huffman (Sacramento) who bested George Stephenson III (Folsom) for the men's Pro/Semi-Pro win and Jen McNiven (San Jose, TrailHead Cyclery) who took the ladies' top honors. Pictures have been posted over at A Finished Product.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Race reports from this weekend's final 24 Hours National Point Series race have been posted over at Ride 424:

"Looks like another clockwork performance by Eatough for the win and a rough night for a lot of riders favored to make the podium - Marenchin, Tostado, Harris all look to have bailed early, Ernesto said he ran into some asthma issues, dont know about the other 2. Rebecca Rusch came in second behind Jari Kirkland in the women’s field ... Full results here." (Via Ride 424)

If this is correct, it looks like most of the 2007 sites are back along with some new ones. Of particular interest is the final site up in Idaho - it's only 12 hours from the Bay Area. It's also interesting that the proposed San Jose stop hasn't gotten rescheduled. And it looks like Angel Fire also dropped. Hopefully that means that they got a UCI race.

Friday, October 12, 2007

The last event on the Team Bigfoot calendar is coming in next week: The Lagrange Classic (SuperD, XC, DH, Short track) will also be the California State Championships as well as the NorCal Series final. More information on that today.

Sand Hill has been asked to host a benefit race on Tara's behalf. We have chosen November 17th because it is the next available Saturday on the calendar ... Although many of you prefer the excitement of our dual slalom course, we have chosen Mountain-X as the race format because it doesn't take as long to run.

There will be a raffle (So far we have Fox Shox, Fox Racing, USA Cycling, Gravity Addix, AllOut Productions, RideSFO, etc.). USA Cycling has waived all permit and insurance fees and Sand Hill will not charge for parking that day. A representative from Tara's account will be there to assure all of you that the money is going directly to Tara. " (Via Sand Hill Website)

Thursday, October 04, 2007

CCCX Race #2 Course Profile: The DH route for race #2 features 1000 feet of vertical drop in approximately 3 miles of trail. The top section will boast some new off camber sections, and some high speed fire roads. Then the course will dip down into a portion of Toro Park that has been used in the past for CCCX races. This area is 90 % single track to the finish. The terrain is fast and flowing with tight sections combined with wide open turns that make the riding fun and challenging. This trail does have some pedaling portions and some flat sections, as well as high speed sections, so it will favor a rider who is well rounded and fully skilled in downhill racing. Toro Park is dry, and the trails are lose and slick, and very fast, so the average speed should be very high for this course.